extirpation of the Kingdom of Darkness and whatsoever is contrair to the Kingdom of Christ and especially Idolatry and Popery in all the Articles of it as we are bound in our National Covenant and Superstition Will-worship and Prelacy with its Hierarchy as we are bound in our Solemn League and Covenant And that we shall with the same sincerity endeavour God giving us Assistance the overthrow of that Power that hath established that Prelacy and Erastianism over the Church and exercises such a Lustful and Arbitrary Tyranny over the Subjects seeking again to introduce Idolatry and Superstition in these Lands contrair to our Covenants And in a word that we shall endeavour the extirpation of all the works of Darkness and the Relicts of Idolatry and Superstition which are both much enlarged and revived in our times and execute righteous Iudgments impartially according to the Word of God and degree of Wickedness upon the Committers of these things but especially Blasphemy Idolatry Atheism Sorcery Perjury Uncleanness Prophanation of the Lords day Oppression and Malignancy that being thus zealous for God he may delight to dwell among us IV. Seriously considering that the hand of our Kings has been against the Throne of the Lord and that now for a long time the Succession of our Kings and the most part of our Rulers with him hath been against the purity and power of Religion and Godliness and freedom of the Church of God and hath degenerate from the vertue and good Government of their Predecessors into Tyranny and hath of late so manifestly rejected God his Service and Reformation as a Slavery as they themselves call it in their publick Papers especially in these last Letters to the King and Duke of Lauderdale disclaiming their Covenant with God and Blasphemously inacting it to be burnt by the hand of a Hang-man governed contrary to all right Laws divine and humane excercised such Tyranny and Arbitrary Government opprest Men in their Consciences and Civil Rights used free Subjects Christian and reasonable Men with less discretion and justice than their Beasts and so not only frustrate the great end of Government which is that Men may live Godly Holily and Peaceably under them and might be maintained in their Rights and Liberties form injury and wrong but hath also walked contrary to it so that it can no more be called a Government but a lustful Rage excercised with as little right Reason and with more Cruelty than in Beasts and they themselves can be no more called Governours but publick Grassators and publick Iudgements which all Men ought as earnestly to labour to be free of as of Sword Famine or Pestilence raging amongst us and besides hath stopped instead of punishing the Course of Law and Iustice against Idolaters Blasphemers Atheists Murderers Incestuous and Adulterous and other Malefactors and instead of rewarding the Good hath made Butcheries and Murthers on the Lord's People sold them as Slaves Imprisoned For faulted Banished and Fined them upon no other account but for maintaining the Lords Right to rule Consciences against the Usurpations of Men for fulfilling their Vows and repelling unjust Violence which innocent Nature allows to all of all which and more particulars we can give we speak as before God innumerable and sure Instances Neither can it be thought that there is hope of their returning from these Courses having so often shewed their Natures and Enmities against God and all Righteousness and so often declared and renewed their Purposes and Promises of persevering in these Courses And suppose they should dissemble a Repentance of these Evils and profess to return to better Courses being put to Straits or for their own Ends for upon no other account can we reasonably expect it and though it might be thought that there might be Pardon for what is done which we cannot yet see to be without the violation of the Law of God and a great guiltiness on the Land from which guiltiness the Land can never be free but by executing of God's righteous Iudgements upon them for omitting of so greatly deserved and so necessarily requisite a Justice yet they cannot be believed after they have violated all Tyes that Humane Wisdom can devise to bind Men and beside there will be something of Folly found to think to bind a King that pretends to absoluteness And our Fathers or rather our selves at first judged it not warrantable to receive Him without consenting to and swearing of the Covenant And if so the renouncing and disclaming thereof we ought at present to judge to be a just and reasonable ground of rejecting Him upon these Grounds being assured of God's approbation and Mens whose Hearts are not utterly byassed and their Consciences altogether corrupted and knowing assuredly that the upholding of such is to uphold Men to bear down Christ's Kingdom and to uphold Satans and the depriving of Men of right Government and good Governours to the ruining of Religion and undoing of Humane Society We then seeing the innumerable Sins and Snares that are in giving obedience to their Acts on the other hand seeing if we shall acknowledge their Authority and refuse Obedience to their sinful Commands the endless Miseries that will follow and siding with God who we hope will accept and help us to a liberation from their Tyranny against his stated and declared Enemies do reject that King and those associate with him from being our Rulers because standing in the way of our Right free and peaceably serving of God propagating his Kingdom and Reformation and overthrowing Satans Kingdom according to our Covenant And declares them henceforth to be no lawful Rulers as they have declared us to be no lawful Subjects upon a ground far less warrantable as Men unbyassed may see and that after this we neither owe nor shall yield any willing Obedience to them but shall rather suffer the outmost of their Cruelties and Injustice until God shall plead our Cause and that upon these Accounts because they have altered and destroyed the Lord's established Religion overturned the fundamental and establish'd Laws of the Kingdom taken altogether away Christ's Church and Government and changed the Civil Government of this Land which was by King and free Parliament into Tyranny where none are associate to be partakers of the Government but only those who will be found by Justice to be Guilty of Criminals and all others excluded even those who by the Laws of the Land by Birth had a right to and a share in that Government and that only because not of the same Guiltiness and mischievous Purposes with themselves And also all free elections of Commissioners for Parliaments and Officers for Government are made void by their making those the Qualifications of admission to these Places which by the Word of God and the Laws of this Land were the cause of their exclusion before so that none can look upon us or judge us bound in Allegeance to them unless they say also we are bound in
the natural consequences of their Covenant and Principles by which we leave the World to Iudge whether Sir George Mackenzie has not treated them with all modesty and tenderness and whether any Form of Government can possibly subsist where such wicked and pernicious Fooleries are propagated THE Solemn League and Covenant WEE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland by the Providence of GOD living under one King and being of one reformed Religion Having before our eyes the Glory of GOD and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true Publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included And calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of GOD against the True Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their Rage Power and Presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of GOD's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant Wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high GOD do Swear 1. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of GOD endeavour in our several places and Callings the Preservation of the Reformed-Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of GOD and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall Endeavour to bring the Churches of GOD in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and Vniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechising That We and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness Lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be One and his Name One in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms And to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties Iust Power and Greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the Discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or Parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be brought to publick Tryal and receive condign punishment as the degree of their Offences shall require or deserve or the supream Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a Blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of GOD granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and Interest endeavour that they may remain conjoined in a firm Peace and Union to all Posterity And that Iustice may be done upon the wilful Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this Blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of GOD the Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King But shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of GOD. And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against GOD and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof we profess and declare before GOD and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the Purity and Power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our Hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us and our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our Power and Charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to GOD and Man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and Establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the
presence of Almighty GOD the Searcher of all Hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such Success as may be deliverance and safety to his People and Encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant To the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths West-kirk the 13. day of August 1650. THe Commission of the General Assembly considering that there may be just ground of stumbling from the Kings Majesties refusing to subscribe and emit the Declaration offered unto him by the Committee of Estates and Commissioners of the General Assembly concerning his former carriage and resolutions for the future in reference to the Cause of God and the Enemies and Friends thereof Doth therefore declare that this Kirk and Kingdom do not own nor espouse any Malignant party or quarrel or interest But that they fight meerly upon their former Grounds and Principles and in defence of the Cause of God and of the Kingdom as they have done these twelve Years past And therefore as they do disclaim all the Sin and Guilt of the King and of his House so they will not own Him nor his Interest otherwise than with a Subordination to God and so far as he owns and prosecutes the Cause of God and disclaimes his and his Fathers opposition to the Work of God and to the Covenant and likewise all the Enemies thereof And that they will with convenient speed take in Consideration the Papers lately sent unto them from OLIVER CROMWEL and vindicate themselves from all the falsehoods contained therein especially in those things wherein the quarrel betwixt us and that party is mis-stated as if we owned the late Kings proceedings and were resolved to Prosecute and Maintain his present Majesties interest before and without acknowledgement of the Sins of his House and former ways and Satisfaction to Gods People in both Kingdoms A. Ker. 13. of August 1650. THe Committee of Estates having seen and considered a Declaration of the Commission of the General Assembly anent the stating of the quarrel whereon the Army is to fight do Approve the same and heartily Concur therein Tho Henderson A True and Exact Copy of a Treasonable and Bloody Paper called The Fanaticks New Covenant which was taken from Donald Cargill at Queens-Ferry Iune 3. 1680. one of their Field-Preachers a declared Rebel and Traitor Together with their Execrable Declaration published at the Cross of Sanquhair upon the Two and twentieth day of the said Month of June after a solemn Procession and singing of Psalms by Cameron the notorious Ringleader of and Preacher at their Field-Conventicles accompanied with Twenty of that wretched Crew WE Under-Subscribers for our selves and all that join with us and adhere to us being put to it by God our Consciences and Men Do bind our Souls with a solemn and sacred Bond lest on the one hand we should be carried away with the stream of the Apostacy and defection of the Church in this time and on the other hand lest we should not being so engaged evanish in Vanity and be without a right Rule in good Designs We have judged it our duty again to Covenant with God and one another and to publish this DECLARATION to the World of our Purposes that Men may know our most inward thoughts the Rules that we walk by and the outmost ends that we have before our eyes for this intent that those who are lovers of God zealous of His reigning in Glory and desirous of Reformation and the propagation of His Kingdom may have occasion no more to be jealous of our Intentions and others may have no ground to load us with odious and foul Aspersions but that all knowing the truth of us if they shall strive against us and Truth with us shall do it without excuse and against conviction and that those who shall join with us may do it upon solid and undoubted grounds and both they and we may expect Grace from Him Faithfully to persevere and happily to be successful in so good Purposes It is true We are not ignorant of the great unmindfulness failing counteracting and mocking that has been in our former Vows and Covenants with God and of the great Iudgments that hath and are like to follow such impious and sinful dealing with God in such weighty Matters for which we both ought and desire to be Humbled before Him which cannot but make us with great trembling of Heart enter into new ones knowing both our own weakness and readiness to relapse and the great hazard and danger of such relapses Yet the desire of recovering and preserving a remnant and the conviction of this as the most convenient mean the zeal to Gods glory and Christs reigning which is the highest and most acceptable duty Man can perform to God hoping for His Mercies who is witness to the Integrity of our Hearts and rightness of our Intentions that he will instruct direct accept and prosper us we go forward declaring that nothing else but what we here express is our Design I. We Covenant and Swear that we take the only true and living God Father Son and Holy Ghost to be our God and betakes our selves to the Merits and Righteousness of His Son as the alone Righteousness that can justifie us before God and that we take His Scriptures and Word to be the Object of our Faith and rule of our Conversation in all things and that we shall give up our selves to Him to be renewed instructed and in all things ruled by His Spirit according to that Word and shall earnestly endeavour by His Grace to render to Him that Love Worship and Obedience that His Word requires and His Goodness engages us to II. That we shall to the outmost of our Power advance the Kingdom of Christ established throughout the Land if at any time hereafter God shall give us this opportunity Righteousness and the true reformed Religion in the truth of its Doctrine in the purity and power of its Worship and Ordinances and its Discipline and Government and free the Church of God from the Thraldom Tyranny Incroachment and corruption of Prelacy on the one hand and Erastianism on the other And we shall to our power relieve the Church and Subjects of this Kingdom we being called thereto by His giving of us Power Power being Gods Call to do good of that Oppression that hath been exercised upon their Consciences Civil Rights and Liberties that Men may serve Him Holily without fear and possess their civil Rights in quietness without disturbance III. That we shall endeavour to our outmost the
A VINDICATION OF THE GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND During the REIGN of King Charles II. AGAINST Mis-Representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets To which is added the Method of proceeding against Criminals as also some of the Phanatical Covenants as they were Printed and Published by themselves in that Reign By Sir GEORGE MACKENZIE Late LORD ADVOCATE There LONDON Printed for I. Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball in Cornhill 1691. A VINDICATION OF THE Government in SCOTLAND During the Reign of King CHARLES II. AGAINST Mis-representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets THe Design of this Paper is neither to seduce others into Faction nor to make an Apologie the one being too Malicious and the other too Mean But because many honest and sincere Men have been abused by some late Misinformations whereby the Charity and Vnity of Protestants amongst themselves are much weakened therefore this Paper comes to set things in their true light by a bare Narrative which will be sufficient to reclaim those who are abus'd and to confute those malicious Authors who have endeavour'd to Reproach a whole Nation with Villanies of which none but these Authors themselves could have been guilty Because the Civil Government in Scotland was never bigot in that King's Reign therefore we shall not run back to consider Episcopacy or Presbyterie otherways than as they may concern the Civil Government Neither should we run so far back as to the Government of King Charles I. were it not to prove that these of the same persuasion who now complain were the first Aggressors and consequently what was done against them deserves rather the name of Self-defence than Persecution For clearing this it is necessary to represent that in the Year 1637 we liv'd under the most Pious and Orthodox Prince of the Age and yet a Rebellion was form'd against him as a Papist and a Tyrant by which all the Fundamental Laws were shaken and all honest Men ruin'd Neither needs there any other proof for this Assertion than the Records of Parliament General Assemblies and Iustice Court From the Records and Acts of Parliament it is undeniable that the power of nominating Judges Counsellors and all Officers of State the power of levying War and raising Taxes were usurp'd by the people Covenants were entred into by a part of the Subjects and by them impos'd imperiously upon the rest Leagues and Covenants were entred into with England Ambassadours were sent to Foreign Princes and States and even to France tho' little less terrible then than now exclaiming against the Injustice of the King justifying their taking Arms against him and therefore intreating the French Aid and Assistance The King himself was inhumanely deliver'd up to his Enemies and thereafter the Army that went in to defend his precious Life were declared Rebels all which was uncontravertedly inconsistent with the Laws of the Kingdom then standing From the Acts of the General Assembly it is clear that the Assembly 1639. refus'd to rise when dissolv'd by the King's Commissioner and most of the following Assemblies did both sit down and rise without his Warrand This Assembly threw out the Bishops and abrogated Episcopacy without Authority of Parliament tho' the Bishops were always the first of the three Estates of Parliament A new Oath was invented called the Covenant without the King's Authority and all Men Women and Children that were above ten years of age forc'd to take it and such as took it not were Excommunicated upon which all their Moveables or Chattels were Confiscated and they themselves being declar'd disobedient to the Laws were forc'd to fly The King 's Negative Voice was declared Illegal and the Acts made for assisting him in the Year Forty Eight were declar'd Void and Null by an unparallel'd Invasion the General Assembly imitating in this as in many other things the Church of Rome raised themselves above King and Parliament From the Records of the Iustice Court we find that the Estates made Advocates or Attorney Generals by their own Authority who prosecuted to death such as defended their own Houses by vertue of express Commissions from the King and such as rose in Arms for his Defence tho' they had both his Commissions and Remissions though the Iudes that Condemned them sat by vertue of that very King's Commission They not only borrowed vast Sums by meer force from private Men whom they never payed but also they were the first that brought in Free and dry Quarter Cess Excise and all these Publick burthens afterwards so much complain'd of when they were continued upon necessary Exigencies by lawful Authority we having neither formerly known Oaths nor Publick burthens under our gentle Kings against whom they so much exclaim'd as Tyrants because forsooth they kept them from being such All these Proceedings were not only condemn'd by the general Opinion of both Protestants and Papists abroad but stand yet condemned by express Acts of Parliament and by many Acts in the like Cases in Scotland and England and so nothing which can be alledged in justification of them deserves or needs an answer King Charles the Second being restored by almost the Universal consent of all the People the worst of whom grew weary of their Villanies The Parliament of Scotland being called they enquired very seriously into the occasion of such Disorders and soon found that they were all to be charged upon the Solemn League and Covenant and those who adhered thereto and therefore they endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians to disown the Covenant all favour being promised to them upon that condition But finding that the Presbyterians generally thought themselves bound to own the Covenant the Parliament concluding that the same Men owning the same Principles would be ready upon occasion to act over again the same things therefore they by Vote which may be called unanimous seeing only four or five dissented restored Episcopacy and that so much the rather because that Government had in no age nor place forced its way into the State by the Sword but had still been brought in by the uncontraverted Magistrate without ever thrusting it self in by Violence and yet the Government did sustain Episcopacy as a part of the State but never as a Hierarchy wholly independent from it The Presbyterian Preachers had all along taught the People That as their Government was Iure Divino so the People might thereby be obliged to defend them and it under pain of Eternal Damnation even when Episcopacy was Established by Law and accordingly some of the People who retained that Principle frequented the Conventicles at which these Ministers Preacht whereupon the State fearing that the old Humour might ferment again into a Rebellion discharged under some small Penalties any above Five Strangers to meet in a Conventicle leaving thereby at once the free exercise of their Conscience in their Families and yet securing the State against such a total defection as might involve us in a New Civil-War which without doubt was all the State design'd
his Majesty refusing to answer upon Oath are thereby guilty of High Treason and are airt and part of the said Treasonable Declaration Salus Populi requiring that every one should contribute what was in his Power to the preservation of the Society and as none of the Kings Servants without this could know if he was secure of his Life so it was very easie for the person accused to clear himself if he was innocent They consider'd likewise that Law in general for the good of the People did accommodate its self to what probation could be allowed and therefore invented presumptive probation upon that account whereof there are so many instances to be seen in all Laws that it were Childish to insist on them and no man has been so just as to produce one Law or Reason to convince us of the Illegality of this Opinion and there is an express Act of Parliament penned by the Learned Sir Iohn Nisbet whereby for the same Reason such as are prosecuted for Conventicles are obliged to Swear whether they were Innocent or Guilty which does run yet higher than this Opinion There is another Opinion given by the Judges much challenged viz. That some having gone about amongst the People demanding Fifty Pound Sterling from each as a Contribution for the Earl of Argyle then forfaulted they from whom that Mony had been asked and conceal'd it were found Guilty of Treason because this was so far beyond private Charity that it would have amounted to a greater Sum than any Parliament had ever granted the King And whereas the proposal of any Assistance to a Rebel is Treasonable the Concealing of it by our Law and by the Law of Nations is undoubted Treason If the matter of Fact in these Answers had been Represented to the late Convention it cannot in Reason be thought they would have condemn'd them and if any Man will compare these Opinions of the Judges with that Grievance pretended in the late Convention and that again with the Act of Parliament they will find the matter of Fact variously represented in all the three We must likewise inform the World That no Man died upon either of these Opinions and to cut off all Debate both these forenamed Opinions of the Judges are expresly ratified by Parliament and consequently are the Sense of the Nation Before we enter upon private Processes we must complain That tho' K. Ch. having by Act of Parliament added five of the Learnedst of all his Iudges to his Iustice General and Iustice Clark in place of two Advocates who were generally but Young or Mean because they had only Fifty pounds Salary and that seldom pay'd that yet every Ignorant Scribler should presume to Reproach their Sentences and shou'd take upon them to judge the deepest Controversies in point of Law and should Dogmatically-Write of Criminal Sentences tho' they never saw a Criminal Court and be Applauded in things which every Servant about that Court knew to be Nonsence Particularly ' as that the Advocate Threatned Iuries whereas all he did was to Protest for an Assize of Error which the Laws Command and which all Advocates ever did and to this day doe Again it is as Foolishly pretended That the Advocate Prosecuted Men without Order whereas indeed he never Prosecuted any until he was Commanded by the Council who are our Grand Iury upon Oath and all their Orders are Registrated the Court likewise was so very favourable to these Criminals that they did ordinarily Name those of their own Profession Presbyterians to pass upon their Jury and sent Ministers of their own Perswasion to Reclaim them and these Iurors and Ministers seldom fail'd to Condemn them as much as the Judges did The Capital Sentences in that Court were Founded Generally upon Actual Rebellion and even as to those there was not one of a thousand Executed Nor in all Argyle's Rebellion was any Executed by their Sentence except one or two who were pitched upon as Examples to terrifie others Nor did there dye upon any Publick Account Twelve in all that Reign so Exclaim'd against as Bloody and not one Dyed for any Principle in Religion unless it be thought a Religious Principle to Dye for Actual Rebellion as to such there needs no particular Defence the very Light of Nature the common Interest of Societyes and the Laws of Nations declaring it a Crime to justifie them It is pretended That tho' the Crimes had been Legally founded yet the Probation was suspect in those times because the Depositions of Witnesses were Previously taken whereby Witnesses being once Ensnared were forced to stand by their Depositions To which it is answered that in all Nations abroad Depositions are Previously taken as is Uncontroverted by all their Criminal Writers and this is very necessary for the Good of the Subjects lest they should be Prosecuted groundlesly and this is as fit for the Good of the King or Kingdom lest such as are Guilty of Atrocious Crimes against the whole Society should escape without being Punished because Tryed when the formal and full Probation is not ready yet to prevent all mistakes the Advocate interceeded that this Trust of Examining Witnesses should not be left to the King's Advocate as it ever formerly had been but should be lodged in the Judges and that lest their Depositions should be any Tye upon them the Judges with Consent of the Advocate ordered that the Depositions should be torn before they Deposed in Iudgment and they were allow'd either to Correct or Pass from their former Depositions as they pleas'd And whereas formerly the King's Advocate had the Naming of the Jury it is now lodged by Act of Parliament in the Judges Nor was there ever any Witnesses suspected except only in Chesnock's Case wherein the Depositions were true and albeit the Witnesses afterwards Asserted upon Oath on their Knees That their first Deposition was very true and that they were only Frighted and Confounded in the Second yet the Council would not resume the Process and thereupon he was Absolv'd in the rest the Probation was but too clear for beside all the Legal Probation most of those who Died owned and Gloried in their Crimes when they Died Exhorting others to imitate them in their Disowning the King and Rebelling against him and many of them Exhorted the People to Kill all such as oppos'd their Principles assuring them that to Kill Malignants was acceptable to God Strangers would likewise be pleas'd to be inform'd That our Law allows the Party Accused a Liberty to call in Witnesses who may Depose upon Oath for Him against the King which the Law of England does not and this kind of Exculcapation was never allow'd till the Reign of King CHARLES II. The first Act which was the Warrant thereof having been made by Sir Iohn Cunningham and Sir George Mackenzie when they were Criminal Iudges and this was never refus'd to the Persons Accused albeit they brought in frequently Witnesses who took very great Latitudes to
Allegeance to Devils they being his Vicegerents and not Gods V. We then being made free by God and their own doings he giving the Law and they giving the Transgression of that Law which is the cause that we are loosed now from all Obligations both Divine and Civil to them and knowing that no Society of Men that hath Corruption in them which always is ready to beget disorders and do injuries unless restrained and punished by Laws and Government can be without Laws and Government and withal desiring to be governed in the best way that is least lyable to Inconveniencies and Tyranny We do declare that we shall set up over our selves and over all that God shall give us Power Government and Governours according to the Word of God and especially according to that word Exod. 18. v. 21. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness and that we shall no more commit the Government of our selves and the making of Laws for us to any one single Person and lineal Successor we not being tied as the Iews were by God to one Family Government not being an Inheritance but an Office which must be squared not to the Interest and Lust of a Man but to the good of the Commonwealth and this kind of Government by a single Person c. being most liable to Inconveniencies as sad and long experience may now teach us and aptest to Degenenate into Tyranny Moreover we declare that these Men whom we shall set over us shall be ingaged to govern us principally by that Civil or Judicial Law given by God to his People of Israel especially in matters of Life and Death and in all other things also so far as they teach excepting only that Law viz. anent Slaves which does not agree with that Christian Liberty established in all Christendom only violated by our Tyrants and some others of late and that of Divorces and Poligamy the one being not a Law but a Permission granted upon the account of the hardness of their Hearts the other being a Sinful Custom contrair to the first institution of Marriage crept in into the Church We know that Men of Malignant and perverse Spirits that has not a higher God than a wicked King which suits only with their lustful licentiousness and it may be others with them that seemed to be of better Principles will raise an ignorant Clamour upon this that it is a Fifth-Monarchy and we Fifth-Monarchy-men and will labour to amuse the People with strange Terms and put odious names on good things to make them hateful as their way is but if this be their Fifth-Monarchy we both are and ought to be such and that according to his word VI. It being the work of the Ministers of the Gospel to preach propagate and defend the Kingdom of God and to preserve the Doctrine Worship Discipline Government Liberties and Priviledges of the same from all Corruptions and Incroachments of Rulers and all others And seeing that the Ministers of the Church of Scotland at least the greatest part of them before not only were defective in Preaching and Testifying against the Acts of these Rulers for overthrowing Religion and Reformation abjuring our Covenant made with God establishing a Government in the Church which that King calls his own Government and so not God's contrair to our Covenant Against inacting of that Blasphemous so Calvin calls that Supremacy of Henry the Eighth upon which this Prerogative is founded and from which it is derived and is no less if not more jnjurious to Christ and inslaving to his Church and Sacrilegious Prerogative given to a King over the Church of God and against the other Acts and Incroachments of His Church and hindred others also who were willing and would have testified against them and censured some that did it for which together with the other Causes in their Trust and Administration we may say God hath left them to do worse things but also hath voted in that Meeting which they are pleased to call an Assembly of Ministers but how justly let Men judge an Acceptation of that Liberty founded upon and given by vertue of that blasphemously arrogated and usurped Power and hath appeared before their Courts to accept of that Liberty and to be enacted and authorized there as Ministers and so hath willingly for this is an elicit Act of the Will and not an Act of Force and Constraint translated the Power of sending out ordering censuring for as they accept of their Liberty from them so they submit to their Censures and Restraints at least all of them who were yet tried with it and others of them appeared and acknowledged before their Courts that they would not have done these things that they were charged with if they had thought it would have offended them Ministers departing from the Court of Christ and subjection to the Ministry to the Courts of Men and subjection to the Magistrate which had been impious and injurious to Christ and His Church though they had been Righteous and Lawful Rulers and by their changing of Courts according to common Law hath changed their Masters and of the Ministers of Christ are become the Ministers of Men and bound to answer to them as oft as they will and as by the acceptation of this Liberty in such manner they have Translated the Power so they have given up and utterly quit the Government and a succession of a Presbyterian Ministry for as these were not granted them of their Masters so they Exercise their Ministry without them and so by this as the Ecclesiastick-Government is swallowed up in the Civil if the rest had followed them the Ministry should have also been extinct with themselves and the whole Work of Reformation had been buried in Oblivion not so much as the remembrance of it kept up These together with the other of their Commissions in Preaching the lawfulness of paying that Tribute declared to be imposed for the bearing down of the true Worship of God which they falsly termed Seditious Conventicles and their advising these poor Prisoners to subscribe the Bond and consequently could not but so advise all others if put to it for the hazard that Men were in will not make a real change of the morality of that Action and beside the rest may be put to it upon the same hazard and so if the one should advise which consequently they must do and the other should subscribe this would altogether close that door which the Lord hath made use of in all the Churches of Europe for casting off the Yoke of the Whore and restoring the Truth and Purity of Religion and Reformation and freedom of the Churches and should have stopped all ingress for Men when once brought under Tyranny to recover their Liberty again These Ministers then not being followers of Christ who before Pontius Pilate gave a good Confession which was that he was a King